For Old Times' Sake
by Hazepool
Summary: Ino didn't have a demon who controlled time sealed in her. She wasn't an expert on time-travel seals. Heck, she hadn't even been warped into a fourth or fifth dimension by a Sharingan technique. No, she was reliving the past because one day she overindulged on some sake.
1. Drunken Justus

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Ino Yamanaka was a proud kunoichi, and being the kunoichi she was, had occasionally pondered over how she would die. She came to the conclusion that she would die fighting for her village, just as she always would. Ino could picture it. There she would stand, Konoha's last hope. Behind her lay her unconscious-yet-not-mortally-wounded comrades, completely dependent on her. She would rush forward, surprising her enemy with her speed and deviously good looks. The match would be long, and brutal, but in the end, she would win with the ultimate sacrifice. Her teammates would awake just in time to see her give them a final, breath-taking smile as her battered and curvaceous form fell slowly to the ground. Yes, it would be a death fit for a proud kunoichi like herself.

Too bad life's a bitch and it didn't end up working out that way.

**You're dead**, a voice boomed.

_No shit_, thought Ino. So maybe trying an advanced version of the Mind Body Switch Technique on herself while drunk was a bad idea. Bite her. She was drunk, for god's sake. Haha. Sake.

**And you died the stupidest way possible**, the voice added helpfully.

Ino scowled and decided to ignore the voice. She deserved all of the good sake she drank for learning a new clan technique. The fact that she ended up showing it off to her friends by using it on herself could be ignored. She peered about into the unending darkness, hoping to find some other ninja she knew, maybe Sakura or a hot shinobi. Unfortunately, she could clearly remember Sai sitting out on the drinking last night. He probably didn't end up dying from a drunken act of stupidity. Oh well. Maybe Sasuke got killed by another missing-nin. Ino wasn't too sure if she'd want to deal with Sasuke by herself, she knew he had gone around the bend more than once. But jeez, he was one hot possibly-insane, condemned international criminal.

**Ahem**, said the voice.** I need to talk to you about some important stuff.**

"Who are you?" asked Ino. "Tsunade?"

**Inner you**, said Inner Ino. **By the way, I have something important to tell you.**

"Oh look," said Ino. "There's a light over there. Must be time for me to go to heaven or be reincarnated. Ta-ta!"

**No, wait!** said Inner Ino as Ino flounced off into the light.** It's really important!**

Ino opened her eyes.

"Must be in heaven," said Ino. She wouldn't be so self-aware if she had been reincarnated. Wait. There was something wrong with her voice. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, thanks to her splitting headache.

Oh. That's what it was. Her voice was way too loud. Ino winced and closed her eyes. The room she was in had a tasteful color scheme of pastel pink and blue with white accents. The light coming in from the windows lit up the room way too much for her aching head. She groaned in despair, recognizing the classic signs of a hangover.

Come to think of it, this room looked exactly like her room did before she redid it a few years ago, swapping out the blue for a light green. Ugh. This was too much thinking in the morning. So far, in Ino's esteemed opinion, heaven sucked. Oh, her poor head. There was a tapping at her door, and Ino covered her ears. There was a muffled voice that sounded like her father.

"Ino, are you up yet? Your team's waiting outside for you."

Ino glared her pillow. Chouji and Shikamaru knew better than to wake her up after a night out. Screw them and their high alcohol tolerance. They were doing this on purpose, just because she was a bit of a lightweight. Later, she was going to give the two of them a painful lecture on hangovers and being respectful to the dead.

"Oh god!" Ino shot up from bed, forgetting her headache.

She was dead. Had died. Inner Ino told her so. She was drunk and used a stupid technique on herself. And now she was in her room from a few years ago with disrespectful teammates. Quickly she looked down at her chest. She was up in seconds, barging past Inoichi Yamanaka, flying into the bathroom, and immediately looking into the mirror.

It was true. Her breasts were about a size and a half smaller. She was in the past, and all of her hard-earned curves were gone.

"NOOOOOOO!"

* * *

A few minutes later Ino stormed out down the path in front of her house in her old, purple outfit. Chouji and Shikamaru wisely chose to not ask what had been taking Ino so long, and instead meekly fell behind her as she stalked ahead to their usual team meeting place.

For some reason, training that day was harder than usual for the boys. Ino's anger seemed to fuel her sparring to new levels. The girl wasn't pulling any punches, her reaction time had increased, and she was improvising with new taijustu that would have worked better if she had more muscular strength and practice. Asuma called an end to team sparring early that day.

Team training was a disaster at first, but steadily improved over the course of the 2 hour long spar against Asuma. Ino was constantly adapting her moves to benefit Shikamaru and Chouji, and once Chouji caught on and Ino punched Shikamaru for motivation, their teamwork was better than ever. The only problems occurred when Ino expected Shikamaru or Chouji to do a move or formation they hadn't learned yet, to her immense frustration.

Nevertheless, Asuma was impressed by the end of the day, enough to skip the usual D-rank and give each of them a sheet of paper.

"Chunin Exams are here in a week. If you want to go, fill this out and follow the instructions."

Chouji frowned. "You think we're ready for this, sensei?"

Asuma smiled around his cigarette in response.

"Chouji, have more confidence. In one day you three learned two new formations. How many other genin teams can say they did that?"

"Yeah!" said Ino, good mood restored at the idea of beating Sakura. "Team Ino-Shika-Cho has this one in the bag. We can't let other teams beat us!"

Shikamaru just sighed before slouching away with paper in hand, muttering under his breath.

* * *

Ino was still in a partial daze when she got back to the flower shop, her entry form clutched tightly in one hand. She took a quick bath before setting up, as usual, behind the counter at the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Her father had stepped in earlier with lunch, and speaking with him was strange, to say the least. Talking about the upcoming Chunin Exam with him was surreal. Her father teased her for being shocked that she was good enough to compete. She had retorted, but her heart wasn't into it. Considering the reassuring hug and promise of extra training Ino had received at the end of lunch, her father must have sensed it somehow. The next few hours were a haze for Ino as customers came in looking a bit younger, startling Ino each time. She had never thought about how much a few years can change a person before all of this.

It was late that afternoon when Ino finally got a chance to sit down at her desk and think things over.

Well, first of all, it was likely that she wasn't dead, sp that made Inner Ino a liar. It was extremely likely that in using a mind technique on herself, she wasn't dead, but simply stuck inside of her own memories, and it was her imagination that was making things different. Perhaps this was a dream, or she was in a coma at the hospital. In that case, she could wake up at any moment with the dream shattered, or truly die in the hospital from a coma.

Yamanaka justus were not ordinary genjustus. They were not breakable by simply calling out "KAI!" and temporarily blocking the flow of chakra. Likewise, hurting oneself wouldn't stop the technique either. This was the mind and soul that was being dealt with, not simply a perception of reality. To complicate it further, Ino's chakra would be the source of the technique. She could try running herself dry on chakra to break the technique, but that risked death from chakra exhaustion. And if she was in a coma, she definitely didn't want to mess up her chakra levels.

She had learned enough of medical ninjustu to know that the slightest changes in a coma could lead to the loss of the patient.

There was the chance that she had, somehow, warped the space-time part of her justu and sent herself to the past, which was more terrifying that anything. Time travel was pretty much impossible. In the event that she had actually traveled to the past, she had no idea where to even start trying to make sense of it. It didn't help that when she used the Mind Leech justu when she was very drunk and unable to recall how or if she had messed it up at all. The Konoha Twelve wouldn't be friends yet, her teammates were still finding motivation, Chouji still would be hesitating at critical moments, Naruto was even more bratty than ever, her boobs were smaller…

Ino really hoped that she was in a coma.

Still, in all cases, there was nothing she could do to break the technique or time-travel back to the future were she was able to drink and celebrate achievements with her friends. Ino sighed and let her head fall forward onto the desk. Why couldn't she have hallucinated herself to be her age?

Reality or not, she was stuck and here to stay. She turned over and looked out the window. The sun was setting behind the village walls, bathing Konoha in a soft, orange glow without shadows. The sounds of people going about their daily lives and the happy shrieks of children playing drifted in into room. At least there was one benefit to all of this, she thought absently while admiring the sight. Ino's lips curved upwards into a smirk.

This time, Forehead-girl was so going down.

* * *

The next week, after some hellish training thanks to Ino, Team Ten gathered early at the examination hall. Ino refrained from saying anything about the two chunin guarding the fake room, instead letting Shikamaru direct them up another flight of stairs. There, they took a stance in the corner of the room.

"Watch each of them," said Shikamaru quietly to his teammates. "Try to figure out what type of ninja they are and which one might be weaker than us."

Chouji opened his next bag of chips.

"I'll check the kunoichi, Ino seems to have the shinobi covered."

Indeed, Ino did think she had shinobi that were covered. Covered way too much, that is! Ino subtly checked out the guys. She already knew which ones were the threats and their abilities, so why not indulge herself? Last time they did this, she was too busy trying to identify the foreign ninjas' styles to give the boys a proper glance over. And yum, was this paying off! A team of shinobi from Suna that didn't make the finals were standing in the corner. Although two of them weren't wearing the traditional headpiece for blocking the desert winds, the one that did had a very nice facial features. She skimmed over the rest of the group. Sound ninja with weird surgeries, ew, Kabuto, oh gross, so creepy, stylish black hair and dark eyes, blue shirt…

"SASUKE!" Ino squealed, and launched herself at her favorite shinobi. Behind her, Shikamaru sighed and looked away, pretending not to know her. Who was she kidding when she thought Sai was a close replacement for this hottie? Oh wait, international criminal that she was thinking about killing. But in this most-likely-dream-world, Sasuke hadn't gone rogue! And he was so cute at this age. She gave him an extra squeeze.

"Ever since we got into teams, we've hardly seen each other!"

"Why does Sasuke always get all the attention, huh?" Naruto kicked the floor and glared at the boy on his left. On the other side of Sasuke, Sakura gave Ino an odd look before realizing that the blonde kunoichi was hanging onto her Sasuke.

"Get off, Ino-pig! Stop acting like you're so close."

Ino stuck out her tongue.

"Make me, Billboard-brow!"

"You're just as ugly as ever, Ino-pig!"

"Bad comeback, Sakura-chan. Small brain, big forehead! Too bad it's not the other way around."

The fight carried just like old times, and Ino was surprised at how much more fun it was when she wasn't taking it seriously. It was so weird to see everyone young again. Her fellow apprentice still had the long hair and pretty dress instead of her practical haircut and clothes. She found herself missing the old Sakura a bit. She liked it better when they were friendly rivals, instead of just rivals. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice when it was her turn to insult Sakura and stepped back from Sasuke instead, leaving Sakura more than a little confused.

"Mmm-hmmm," Ino said vaguely. At the front of the room, Ibiki Morino called for everyone's attention, and the exam began. Naruto and Kiba had been remarkably silent, instead watching the two genin kunoichi bicker. Because of this, there was no large disruption

_Huh_, thought Ino. _That was different._ She inwardly complimented her imagination for thinking things out so thoroughly. Even the spot she sat at had the same hole in the wood that she vaguely remembered picking at during the boring exam last time.

"Began!" said Ibiki, and Ino flipped over her paper and skimmed over the questions. As a genin, they were pretty hard. But she was chunin now, and could probably fudge her way through enough of the questions to get a passing grade. Well, that was if she wanted to. She would just take a nap until the tenth question. She lay her head down on the table and under hooded eyes watched Sakura write furiously a few rows ahead of her. Well. This was too tempting. It was like the universe was begging her to annoy the crap out of the pink kunoichi. Ino grinned and make a few subtle handsigns.

_Universe, this one's for you._

Stealing Sakura's answers felt as good as ever, especially when she mentally informed Sakura that yes, she was capable of answering the questions on her own.

"But Sakura-chaaaaaan, you know what Iruka-sensei told us," Ino said cheerfully to Sakura inside her head. "Always double-check your work!"

She paused to draw a winky face on Sakura's paper holding a V for victory sign. When she released Sakura from the Mind-Body Switch Technique, the poorly-concealed scream of rage from the pink-haired kunoichi almost got Team Seven kicked out.

Ino ignored the fact that she was an experienced chunin messing with a rookie genin. Life, or not-life, was good.

* * *

**A few notes:** Ino doesn't have some giant fox that's a master of time to take her back to the past and tell her that, no scroll with time-travel justu, no sealing techniques because she's a seal master….nada. Of course she's going to question if this is real or not, she's an intelligent person.

Team Asuma is a lot more focused on teamwork than Team Seven when it comes to fighting. Therefore, Ino's not getting a super power-up. It's impossible for her to change the timeline with sheer power herself, she needs Chouji and Shikamaru's help. So no god-mode Ino, sorry guys.

Remember, she's not treating this like it's reality yet. To her, time-travel is still in impossibility. So she's not going to go out of her way to help Team Seven against that snake creep, or call out Kabuto. From her perspective, she doesn't know the extent that Kabuto plays in the Chunin Exam, though she does know that Orochimaru is no good news. Inner Ino will return, and more on where she is from the future timeline will be revealed in the next few chapters.

And man, time-travel stories are so easy to write! You start typing and BAM! Two hours have gone by and you have 2,500 words. Crazy stuff, so awesome! **My goal for this story is for each update for this story will be around 2k-3k words to get me in the habit of writing a lot in one period of time and to get me used to writing tons of words in general.**

R&R and I'll love you forever.

See you next week or so!

Hazie

**EDIT: Fixed details and some typos.**


	2. Shadow Justus

The gates of the Forest of Death loomed above Team Asuma. Somewhere in the background, they could hear Anko cackling manically. Chouji and Shikamaru grumbled about the food situation and how troublesome the next few days were going to be.  
Ino sighed and examined her fingernails, expertly concealing her growing apprehension. The Chunin Exams were the beginning of the end for peacetime in Konoha. Sakura had told her about how Orochimaru had attacked Team Seven, and how it was the beginning of the end for Sasuke, as the heavenly seal slowly transformed him from their aloof crush to the monster wearing his body. And now she got to relive it. Oh. Joy. A rational part of her mind whispered that she could walk away if she wanted to at any moment. There was no need for her to torture herself like this. Was beating Sakura really worth all of this trouble?

Psh. Of course it was. Still, coma or reality, Ino couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Go kiddies, go!" Anko's voice boomed over the loudspeakers, and their gate swung open. "Become the cute, little monsters you are!"

Monsters. Ino hated them.

* * *

As they sped through the forest, they began planning their first ambush. A genjustu-heavy team from Sand was to be their first target, and thanks to a little maneuvering on Ino's part, they had only been lined up two gates to the team's right. Mirages worked great in the desert, but the team would be at a disadvantage in foreign territory where they would have to create a genjustu that blended in with unfamiliar surroundings.

"They've got a well balanced team, there isn't one specifically weak person like in Team Seven. However, none of them had the right calluses for taijustu. They need a powerhouse to finish off the ones trapped in the justu, so that means either weapons or ninjustu, probably wind justu."

Ino briefly landed on a limb, scanning the area for potential threats as she did. "Should we split them up? Genjustu means more observant than normal, and they're going to be studying for any irregularities."

"Ha..ha…We could bait them?" Chouji was slightly out of breath by now, but doggedly kept up with the aggressive pace they had decided on.

"We could," said Shikamaru.

"Easy!" said Ino. She pouted her lips and blew a kiss to where she thought Sasuke might be. "Beauty is very distra-"

"Not going to work," said Shikamaru, not even bothering to see what she was doing. An acorn rocketed off of his head not a moment later.

"Troublesome woman."

Ino huffed. "You'll never get a girlfriend," she said, ignoring his later diplomatic relationships with Temari of the Sand. They weren't official, so it didn't count.

Shikamaru gave her a disinterested glance from his point position, but Ino could barely make it out. The sun was beginning to set, and here in the forest under the thick canopy, that meant visible light faded very quickly. The birds stopped their singing and fell silent, leaving the cicadas to drone on as the trio halted their advance on an old tree and took shelter in the shadows.

"We've got two choices. Attack now or later. I don't care either way." Despite his claim of disinterest, Shikamaru's gaze was sharp, and Ino immediately became serious.

"Now. Let's get to the tower as fast as we can." There was no way Ino was going to willingly stick around where there was an S-ranked criminal after small children longer than necessary.

"I'm with Ino," said Chouji. The shadows splayed across his face gave him an uncommonly solemn and dangerous look. "I want to finish this quickly. The longer we're out here, the more chances are one of us will get hurt. And the faster we'll get to real food."  
Shikamaru nodded. "Here's the plan…"

* * *

The Sand genin were speaking quietly amongst themselves, tired after a long day and night of avoiding other ninjas, wildlife, and the forest itself. They stood in the middle of a small clearing that they had miraculously stumbled upon. Around them Konoha's giant trees formed a circular wall with few gaps between the trunks, effectively securing their hideout from other team. One of them, a small kunoichi, was idly alternating placing and removing a genjustu on some of the giant roots, playing with the shading and details of the wood as they wound down for the night.

Thud.

In a flash the Sand genin were armed and in battle stances, eyes flickering warily from side to side. The sound had come from the gap on the west side of the grove.

Thud. Thud.

"Not a genjustu. It could be some sort of animal," said the kunoichi.

Thud. THUD.

The kunoichi that had been playing with genjustu earlier shuddered for a second and gasped. Her team leader, a tall boy with the hints of a goatee, gave her a concerned look.

THUD.

"I...I...I'm so scared!" Genjustu Girl cried, and latched onto Goatee with surprising strength.

"Get. off. me," said Goatee, struggling to get away. All he did was end up making Genjustu Girl sob even louder. Their other teammate rolled his eyes.  
"It's like you want people to find you and kill you. Now shut up."

Genjustu upped the tears. "But I'm too cute to die!"

**THUD.  
**  
Light spilled into the clearing. Genjustu squeaked and tackled her teammates into the shadows. There, they were frozen momentarily before a huge hand came soaring in out of nowhere, instantly knocking them out.

"Good one, Chouji."

Shikamaru stepped out from a nearby tree, supporting a rapidly-recovering Ino.

"That was really pathetic," said Ino. "They shouldn't have been so distracted by their teammate. Well, then again, she was pulling off a super cute look, thanks to me." She let go of Shikamaru and flipped her long hair. Long hair. The thing that she was going to keep. Very. Long.

Chouji emerged from the undergrowth sheepishly, having finished circling around the clearing and randomly hitting things.

"Thanks."

Ino surveyed the clearing. Ninja-wire, coated with mud to cover the shine, was discreetly twisted into the many vines surrounding the clearing, leaving only one of the gaps between the trees open. They had herded the team to this exact location after a grueling few hours of mixing animal noises, sounds of fighting, and natural terrain like quicksand. After hours of constantly being on alert, the Sand team was psychologically worn out, and fell easily to their final trap. It had taken most of the night to do - the light grey staining the eastern part of the sky told them so. It was a pretty good plan that required minimal effort on their part so they could conserve themselves for other encounters.

Shikamaru began patting down the kid with the goatee. "Got it."

He withdrew a scroll from the boy's pocket. The kanji for Heaven could be made out in the growing light, giving all three genin, Ino included, a sigh of relief.

"That was lucky," she said. Good. Now all they had to do was go to the tower and wait for Sakura's team. Easy. Chouji silently took the scroll and hid it inside what appeared to be an empty bag of chips. Shikamaru nodded, eyes losing what focus that had and returning him to his regular, unmotivated self, and drooping slightly. Birds started chirping again, eager to greet a new day.

"Should we sleep?" Chouji was giving worried glances to his best friend. It was unusual for Shikamaru to be awake for this many consecutive hours without some form of sleep. Heck, he even would sleep during training when Asuma wasn't looking, or was taking too long with his next shougi move.  
Ino put her hands on her hips. "No. Let's get this done, Team Ino-Shika-Cho style! Sleep is for civilians, ninjas can't afford to sleep. Call it training for the mind!"

Shikamaru groaned, obviously not happy with the lack of sleep, but Ino ignored it. The sooner they could get out of this godforsaken forest, the better.  
"I'll take point." She began leaping up the trees, leaving the boys no choice but to follow.

* * *

They were fairly close to the tower later that day when Ino heard the sounds of fighting in the distance.

Ino remembered this. Lee was getting his ass handed to him right now, and Sakura was in trouble.

She paused and made a spilt-second decision. She grabbed Chouji's scarf and headed to the tree where they had watched the fight before. Something was different this time, though, and Ino couldn't put her finger on why.

"Argh!" Lee took his first sound attack, flying up in the air and landing harshly before standing up again.

Oh. They were early. Sakura still had long hair.

"What a drag," said Shikamaru.

"Formation Side-Shadow, I'm taking down that Zaku kid," said Ino.

"What? You're crazy. We already have a scroll, there's no need for us to stay," said Chouji, and crossed his arms.

Oh great, Chouji had been barbecue-deprived to the point of whiny-ness. Ino's eyes narrowed. As the unofficial leader of the team, she was used to calling the shots.

"_I said Formation Side-Shadow,_" Ino practically hissed.

Lee crumpled to the ground, and Sakura was caught by her hair. The best time to strike would be directly after Sakura's vicious attack on Zaku, when all the Sound ninja were distracted.

"It's Ino's idea, not mine Chouji. And we might be able to take this team down if we use the new formation."

"This isn't teamwork," Chouji said in a loud whisper. "And we just learned that new formation a few days ago, there's no way it's working. Shikarmaru and you haven't trained enough, and we had an elaborate plan for when we got the scroll. This plan is one thing - suicidal! You can't make me!"

Ino clapped her hand over his mouth, alarmed at how loud he had gotten at the end of his mini-speech.

"Are you trying to give away our position?"

Below, Sakura cut her hair, and began a series of attacks of Zaku. They needed to hurry.

"I was in his mind to get answers for the exam," said Ino, lying hastily like the good ninja she was. "Did you know he thinks you're super ugly and fat? That kunoichi said that whales weigh less than you do." A lie mixed with truth was the best way to go, and Zaku had said Chouji was fat the first time. The kunoichi, Kin, hadnt said anything of the sort, but that was the genin that Chouji needed to attack.

Chouji went still. "This just became personal," he growled.

Sakura bit down on Zaku's arm. It was time.

"She said that a fatty like you could never defeat her," said Ino cheerfully.

"She WHAT? Expansion Justu! Leaf Style : Human Bullet Tank!"

"I get the furry back?"

Ino nodded in response to Shikamaru's question.

"Yes, Dosu. Stall him for a second. I'll knock him out." She flipped through handseals as fast as she could. Kin was doing her best to avoid Chouji, but had already been clipped by the angry genin twice. Dosu was preparing to strike, and Zaku had just shaken off Sakura. The Side-Shadow formation required Chouji as a distraction while Ino and Shikamaru alternated performing their own signature techniques. However, distractions have to be taken advantage of right away. They didn't have any time left.

"Shadow Possession Justu," said Shikamaru by way of reply.

"Mind Switch Justu."

Duso froze. "A paralysis technique? Zaku! Wake up Sas-"

He never finished his sentence. The ring end of a kunai had hit the very back of his head, knocking him out but still leaving him crouched down like he was awake, thanks to the Shadow Possession.

"Why...would you turn on your teammate like that?" Sakura was bleary eyed, and Ino thought she might have a confusion from Zaku's repeated hits on her head. She made Zaku shrug.

"Shikamaru, switch!" shouted Zaku. The shadow connecting to Dosu let go. Dosu slumped to the ground as the shadow twisted and latched onto Zaku. Right before it connected, Ino canceled the technique.

"I'll kill you all," said Zaku when he regained use of his vocal chords. Ino checked Sasuke. Evil-looking purple chakra streamed from his body in small amounts. They needed to hurry up. Kin was out for the count, but Chouji wasn't going to knock out Zaku for her. Bursting from her cover, Ino flipped in the air and struck a devastating chop to the back of Zaku's head. There was no way he was waking up from that anytime soon.

"Clear," she said, and Shikamaru gratefully canceled his possession.

"Jeez. What a drag."

"Whoa," said Chouji, impressed by how little time it took for their team to take down the Sound genin. Ino didn't have time to be proud. It wasn't over yet.

"NEJI!"

The Hyuuga appeared in the trees, followed by Tenten.

"I must say, I expected you to be a lot weaker. Fate has-"

"Neji, seal Sasuke's chakra now! There's only allies around here!" Ino's voice was full of command she didn't know she had.

Neji's eyes narrowed, disliking being spoken to as such. Ino chanced another glance at the monstrous chakra.

"Godammit, you bastard, use the Byakugan, please!"

Maybe it was the desperate tone of her voice, maybe the tears that threatened to fall, but to the confusion of the other Rookies present, Neji listened and activated his bloodline with one handseal. He quickly understood what the blonde kunoichi was trying to say. Sasuke's chakra was unstable, and if there had been enemy ninja about, he could have gone berserk on them and therefore helped out his team. However, in an area full of allies, the chakra explosion building up inside him could potentially harm his fellow Konoha ninja. And after the way Team Ten had taken down their opponents, they had earned some grudging respect from Neji.

He flashed down to where the Uchiha lay, and, ignoring the chakra coming off him in waves, plunged his hand into Sasuke's shoulder where the curse mark was. He continued to cut off chakra along the arm and around the chest and neck as well. It may have been overboard, but it was very satisfying to do to sole member of the Hyuuga's rival clan. Ino relaxed, and Sasuke opened his eyes to see Neji smirking at him.

"Sakura, what happened?"

As Sakura filled in her teammate on what had happened, Ino slid over to Neji.

"Thanks."

Neji nodded. "If you were stronger, you wouldn't have needed my help," he said.

Ino took that as a thank you.

"Sakura, how badly hurt are you?" Sasuke's voice drifted over to Ino, and she was reminded that once upon a time, the condemned Sasuke cared for his teammates. She walked back to Sakura, hands glowing a light green.

"Here, let me."

She may not have been as good as Sakura in the future, but already the very minor concussion was healing, and her swollen eye was back to normal.  
"Ino, your medical justu is surprisingly good."

Damn. Stupid Shikamaru and his observant I-am-so-much-smarter-than-everyone ability. Ino sensed a very long team talk in the future. Boring. Maybe she wouldn't tell them and let her teammates deal. She was in charge around her anyway. For now, though, she shrugged.

"I've been practicing."

She moved on to cutting Sakura's hair while Sasuke introduced himself to Tenten and Neji. Sakura's brows furrowed. "Ino...why...?"

Ino paused in her trimming and gently hugged Sakura. "Because we're friends. Always have been, always will."

"I-Ino..."

"Besides," Ino added, starting on a cute layer effect on Sakura's bangs. "There's other hot boys out there. Sasuke just happens to be in the hottest in out age group."

Right now, Ino mentally corrected. Sai wasn't here yet. And Neji wasn't so bad himself. Was Tenten with Neji? Hmm. Well, if she was, it hadn't happened yet! He was free game in Ino's eyes.

Sakura hesitated for a second, then gave a watery smile.

"Yeah."

Ino smiled back, and privately congratulated herself on a job well done.

"Wait. If we're such good friends, why did you steal my answers, Pig?"

The kunai that Ino had been using to cut Sakura's hair was hastily thrown into the ground beside her while Ino began to slowly walk away.

"Oh, will you look at the time, looks like Sasuke's okay and Naruto's waking up, and is the sun really that far west right now? Huh. Guess we'd better get going, too bad, so sad! Shikamaru, Chouji?"

"Might as well," said Shikamaru. "No need for us to stay longer than we have to. I hate tests."

"You invaded my mind for no reason!" roared Sakura, leaping up with her fighting spirit restored and her fist aimed Ino's head.

Ino nimbly dodged the swipe. "Well hello there, Team Guy, I hope Lee is fine, we're on our way to the tower as well. Sakura darling, catch you later!"  
Ino gave her best flirtatious wink to Sakura and blew a kiss to Sasuke. She gave Team Guy a wave as she, Shikamaru, and Chouji hightailed it out of there, leaving behind a surprised group of genin.

"She didn't talk to Sasuke at all," Sakura said faintly. She reached up and touched her new haircut, a thoughtful expression on her face. Sasuke grunted and started a competition with Neji on who was the better Rookie of the Year, distracting the Hyuuga prodigy from contemplating Team Ten. Then Naruto came screaming out of the tree base only to be hit by Sakura, and everything was right with the world and Team Seven again.

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**AN: **Whoo, over 3000 words! No beta on this story, but I'll be going back and editting this story later/when I can. Yes, I'm making up formations and stuff. Why? Because I'm the totally awesome and godlike author. Hm. There's still tons of room for improvement. I should try reworking my style and descriptions. Well, it was better than the first chapter, and that means we're seeing improvement, guys!

-Hazie

EDIT 10/30/12: Added spaces to make it easier to read.


	3. Sneaky Justus

**AN: As I am considering discontinuing my other fic, I will be dedicating a lot more time to this one. Huzzah! Expect more updates soon. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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_Chapter 3_

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"Oh. Yes. Score!" Ino fist-pumped the smoky air as the summoned chunin finally left, leaving their now-useless scrolls on the wooden floor. "We've finished the second part, _and_ we've got some down time before the rest of the exam. We rock." She slapped Chouji a high-five and turned to Shikamaru, who merely shoved his hands in his pockets and refused to participate.

"Aw, c'mon. It's a victory signal…sign…thingie. We've got down time, Shika. That means nap time for you, eating time for Chouji, and boy-watching time for me. Aren't you excited?"

"If you call down time 'Let's listen to Ino's Explainations' time, then yeah, I'm looking forward to it."

Ino frowned. "What, it's not like I'm an imposter or anything. I'm still me."

"I believe you," said Shikamaru. Ino smiled sweetly, but quickly dropped the smile as he continued. "No imposter could ever be as annoying and troublesome as you are."

"I'm going to go sit over there in that corner," said Chouji, "eat the rations I stole from Team Seven, and be treated like I'm not a part of this team until you're done arguing."

Shikamaru and Ino ignored him.

"You're the annoying one, Mr. I'm-Such-A-Genius-I-Can-Get-Away-With-Doing-Minimal-Work. I bet you're going to end up forfeiting later on just because whenever I try to get us to train seriously, you never try!"

"There's nothing wrong with a forfeit. Besides, if I quit, I'll never hear the end of it from everyone else." Shikamaru shrugged. "So troublesome."

"Oh, you'll quit all right," said Ino, snorting. "You'll lose to some girl because you're a masochist and you want her to beat you in every single way possible."

There was a choking sound from the corner of the room Chouji was occupying. Shikamaru and Ino ignored it.

Shikamaru blinked a brief flash of surprise before his eyelids lowered again. "That makes no sense. Troublesome woman."

"Troublesome, troublesome, troublesome! Have you ever heard of this thing called a thesaurus, you ignoramus?"

"You're not Ino."

Ino froze, her hands suspended in the air from where she had been waving them about in exasperation. She lowered her arms and spun around, giving Shikamaru a hard look. "Didn't we just go over this?"

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "Our Ino has no idea what 'ignoramus' means. Nor does she know any medical justu, have advanced skills in strategy and tactics, or insult me for as long as you just did without complimenting herself. And don't try to tell me otherwise. My mom would never stop nagging me if Ino was training more than me by learning medical justu." He slunk back from her, closer to the exit and the corner where a slack-jawed Chouji sat, granola bar paused halfway in its journey to his open mouth.

Ino's thoughts raced as she smiled, bringing up her open palms in the universal sign of a person meaning no harm. "You're halfway right. I'm not Ino, but I am Ino."

"A parallel universe?" Shikamaru didn't move from his battle-ready stance. "Then what's happened to our Ino?"

"Parallel universe? I mean," Ino coughed, thanking Shikamaru's premature conclusion. "_Parallel universe_! No, I'm Ino."

"Answer the question."

"About a week and a half ago, before the Chunin Exams, I messed up a family technique and met my parallel self, who taught me medical justu, strategy, and humility. The end." Ino thought it was a brilliant lie, and gave herself a mental pat on the back.

"That doesn't make any sense," said Shikamaru.

"You don't make any sense," retorted Ino.

"Why didn't you tell us?" This time, Chouji wasn't ignored.

"Eh, we haven't been that close until this past week during the exam. Plus, would you really have believed me?"

The boys hesitated. Ino smirked. "I thought so."

Then she patted herself on the back, because really, she deserved more than a mental pat for all of that.

"So, down time?"

The exam finished, and the chunin hopefuls stood in lines listening to the Hokage speak. Ino fought back a yawn.

"Blah blah blah…nations…blah blah blah…fighting…blah blah blah,"droned the Hokage. Ino rolled her eyes. She was already a chunin, technically. The Will of Fire and her pride for her country was earned through the battles she had fought against bandits, thieves, thugs, other shinobi, Orochimaru's forces and the nuke-nin forces of the group Akatsuki that had been steady been becoming active after Naruto's return a month ago, not some super boring speech. Speaking of Naruto, her fellow blond ninja was supposed to have started elemental training with Kakashi the morning after their celebratory bar night. Ino absently wondered whether or not Naruto had shown up with a hangover to his training. She quickly dismissed it as a 'no' – Naruto and Chouji could drink any of their peers under the table.

Ino discreetly looked around the room, trying to find Naruto now that she was thinking of him. She was sure she had seen the unique color of Sakura's hair earlier…there she was! Pink hair, there's Sakura, blond, that was Naruto…black…not present?

Ino shook her head a few times. Where was Sasuke?

Later, as they trooped up the stairs and the first match began between a Sand team that hadn't made it through last time and one of Kabuto's teammates, Ino made her way over to Team Seven on the balcony.

"Hello, Sakura, Naruto, Hatake-sensei. Where's Sasuke?"

"Hey Ino." Sakura leaned on the railing, worry evident in her eyes. "Sasuke...couldn't make it. He's in the hospital right now."

"Medical reasons?" Ino frowned. "But he made it here, right? It's a team pass or fail."

"He did," said Sakura. "But then he…well…"

"He exploded," Naruto said bluntly.

Ino stared. In the distance, she could hear the announcer declaring the Sand genin the winner. A bird outside the window sang its cheerful song. On the edge of the forest, a snake hissed loudly as it brushed against the electric fence. A young child began to cry, realizing he had lost his teddy bear in the streets of Konoha. And somewhere, a few miles away, in a small room full of elite shinobi, a crazy madwoman watching surveillance cameras dropped the dango stick she had been chewing on, clattering as it hit the wooden floor.

"God_dammit_," the woman yelled, and angrily shoved another piece of dango in her mouth.

Ino didn't register the sound of the dango stick dropping. She shook her head, dispelling the image of the one of the hottest genin in bits and pieces stuck to the walls of the Tower's summoning room. "I'm sorry. You lost me at the exploding part."

"Well," said Naruto, but this time he was the one being interrupted, eyes widening as he stared behind Ino. Before she could turn around or grab a kunai, Ino felt a warm hand wrapping around her collarbone and shoulder blade. She involuntarily tensed as Kakashi Hatake's voice began speaking right next to her ear.

"That's a story for another time, now, isn't it? Sasuke's chakra paths exploded after a build-up of poisoned chakra. It seems they were blocked by the work of a Hyuuga on behalf of a Yamanaka. Interesting, no?" His tone may have been mild, but the slight pressure Ino felt on the back of her spine and the honeyed words only served to remind her how dangerous the jounin elite really was. Kakashi raised his voice so that Naruto and Sakura could hear him. "So that's why you'll be joining Team Seven and Team Guy after the exams for lunch!" He finally released Ino and stepped away, his visible eye upturned in his version of a smile.

"God, you're one scary motherfucker," breathed Ino, and gave a small shudder when Kakashi's body language told her he took it was a compliment. It was obvious that this team get-together was to find out if the Hyuugas and Yamanakas were trying to dispose of the last Uchiha, something that Ino personally took offense to. Speaking of lunch, though… "If Chouji's going to be there, you'd better be paying. He hasn't eaten real food in days."

Sakura made a face. "I'm not helping pay for Naruto, either. He eats like a pig."

"Nuh-uh, do not, Sakura!"

"I object," said Ino, raising her hand. "I've got great table manners."

Naruto scowled and turned back to the matches, where Shino was fighting one of the Sound teammates.

Sakura pushed off the railing and smirked at her fellow kunoichi. "Oh? Here I thought all of the time you spent at the table was just you eating. Nice to know you've learned manners while gaining that weight."

"They're called curves, you flat-chest freak," sniped Ino. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hayate slipping away to speak with her teammates and Asuma, and was reminded of her original purpose for seeking out Team Seven. "By the way, why are you and Naruto still here if Sasuke's chakra imploded? Aren't we having Preliminaries to get rid of the extras, i.e., you two?"

"Technically, Sasuke made it through to the Preliminaries, since he only broke down after Iruka-sensei left. So, we weren't disqualified as a team, only Sasuke was," Sakura said, twisting a finger through her new bangs. "I was looking forward to seeing him fight."

"It's a shame, isn't it? When he's fighting…it's so graceful," Ino said wistfully, thinking back to three years ago when she had last seen Sasuke fight.

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Like poetry in motion."

The two girls sighed in unison.

"Winner: Shino Aburame!"

Ino blinked, sliding up to Naruto and peering down at the floor below. Had it really been two matches already? Not interested in watching the third match, she turned back to Sakura.

"So, did you see Hyuuga?"

"Yes, I did, but I was a little more worried about Sasuke right then."

"Well, we need to find out if he and Tenten are together or not. I don't want to make a bitch move and step on someone else's territory."

"He seemed like a jerk."

"A _hot _jerk."

Ino grabbed her friend and spun her around to a position where Neji was in her direct line of view.

"Oh," said Sakura faintly. Ino thought it was because she was being reminded of his relative hotness.

"Yeah. Oh," said Ino. "_Ooooh!_"

"No need to mock me. I admit he's hot, but not as hot as Sasuke."

"You're right about that. I meant _oh_, I just realized what I'm here, in this reality."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed together in concern. "You're here to annoy me and pant after every guy you see?"

"I'm here," declared Ino, "to protect and defend all of the hot, single, young men of Konoha!"

This time, it was Sakura's turn to roll her eyes. "You can't be serious."

"I'm as serious as I'll ever be."

"Hey! That's not why you're supposed to become a ninja! What about all of the other people in Konoha, huh? There's a lot more people than single guys around here, ya know!"

_Aw, _Ino mentally cooed. Naruto was being his normal, loud, naïve self. She gave him a wink.

"But what if you're one of the ones I have to protect? Still going to complain?" Naruto sputtered, and Ino grinned at her success. "Besides, it's not like I'm not going to fight for my country and village. We've got damn good genetics that are definitely worth fighting for."

"Would Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka please step down to the floor?"

Ino practically flew over the railing in her haste to begin the fight, landing lightly in a crouch. "Hurry up, slow-brain!"

Sakura, in a show of childishness, descended down the staircase in a sedate manner. Then again, thought Ino suddenly, maybe it was childish. Ino wasn't as smart as Shikamaru, but she was clever, and had a talent for reading people. At first glance, Sakura looked calm - anticipant, even - but Ino was trained to see the small twitch of the eyebrows, the fingers, half hidden in her dress,curling and uncurling. Sakura was just as nervous as she was the the first time the Preliminaries occurred.

A good person would encourage Sakura to buck up, to believe in herself, or try to antagonize her to a degree where she was so mad that the jitters of fighting her newfound friend and rival would be ignored. Unfortunately for Sakura, Ino was a good ninja, and that's a completely different thing altogether.

"Sakura, it's okay," she began. "I understand you're nervous. I'm a little nervous myself." She smiled a little and clenched her fists, head slightly bent. She heard a light cough above; clearly she wasn't fooling some of the more competent genin and the high-ranking shinobi, but that didn't matter. The only member of the audience that was important stood right in front of her. "I get it. We're friends. But you know, we're also rivals, especially here and now."

Sakura nodded, but Ino continued before the other girl could speak. "That is why," she said, hardening her gaze and shifting into her starting stance, "I acknowledge you, and although I sure you've got better chakra control than me, and have studied more medicinal justu than I've studied, practiced taijustu more than me, have learned a dozen more ninjustu than the five or six I have since the time we've left the academy, I'm still going to give it my all!"

Sakura's mouth worked open, and Ino could practically see the thoughts racing in her head. Mecinical justu? Sakura had never even thought about studying medicinal justu. And Ino knew that Sakura's ninjustu had always been weak. Ino mentally smirked.

"Okay, done with the talking? Ready – begin!"

As soon as the examiner finished the last syllable, Ino was in motion, flexing her chakra to leap boost her speed as she launched herself at Sakura, right hand tensed. Sakura, although startled by Ino's aggressive initiation, raised a hand and prepared to block the telegraphed punch to her head…

..and was promptly thrown to the ground, not having seen Ino's left-sided kick. She rolled, narrowly avoiding the rain of kunai, only to find herself pinned against the wall. She put her hands together, but Ino was practically on top of her, holding a sharp blade to her throat.

"Forfeit."

Sakura's eyes widened. Her fingers flew, faster than she ever thought she could, and Ino was left holding a log. Sakura leaned into the corners of the shadows, desperately trying to think of a plan to wear Ino out. Both of the girls' breathing was under control, but Sakura had broken into a light sweat, and Ino had not. In the background, she could hear Naruto yelling something, but she had to focus, she had to focus on the rival that held such high expectations for her _that she could not meet and she didn't know ninjustu that well and Ino was looking up to her Ino was going to be disappointed INO WAS LOOKING UP TO HER-_

"Mind Body Switch Technique."

With those words, Sakura could feel her eyelids drooping, her shoulders straightening, and a smirk forming.

_Ino_, thought Sakura furiously, _GET THE HELL OUT OF MY MIND._

However, Ino had years of practice against strong mental opponents, Sakura's determination was nowhere near strong enough to throw her out at the moment.

Ino raised Sakura's hand. "In respect to Ino's wonderful, gorgeous, well-kept hair," she said, gesturing to where Ino's body lay slumped against the wall. "I forfeit!"

_No! I don't!_ wailed Sakura.

_Hush, I just got another great idea._ Ino thought back.

Sakura groaned, and redoubled her efforts of trying to eject Ino from her mind. It didn't matter. Ino gave Sakura control of her toes, and while Sakura wriggled them about, thinking she was winning, Ino used Sakura's voice again.

"Also, I swear, with all of you watching this preliminary exam as witness, that I will help my dear friend Ino in whatever quest she may undertake for the betterment of Konoha!"

Amidst the cheers of her fellow Konoha patriots, Ino canceled the technique and grabbed her ponytail. It was done. She had made it.

"I'm beautiful," she said, petting her long hair adoringly.

"Wait!" Sakura ran up to the examiner, who had reappeared in the middle of the floor when Ino had Sakura crying out her forfeit. "I don't forfeit - it doesn't count!"

"Kid," said the examiner, rubbing at the bags under his eyes, "the point is to make your opponent forfeit. The Yamanaka made you forfeit."

"No hard feelings, Sakura," said Ino. She popped open a travel case of leave-in conditioner she had found in a random bathroom in the Tower, and worked in the scentless lotion on her way to the staircase. "Beauty is pain, you know? It just doesn't always have to be your own pain."

"Winner: Ino Yamanaka!"

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**On the next issue of For Old Time's Sake: Ino goes to lunch with her teammates! And what? Why is that totally gross Kabuto creeping around!? Stick around and find out!**


End file.
